A/N: Written for the Random Prompts Challenge at the RANDOM forum, 1 from Glac's list: disqualify.
Too Early for a Briarwood Show
In her heart, Lisa had known she wasn't ready. She was still green: inexperienced. Prancer was even less adept in the competitive world than she. And Briarwood was such a big thing…
But she'd let her dreams consume her: let herself see the picture of the perfect rider and horse and try to make it a reality. And she knew Prancer wasn't perfect; she'd ridden the Thoroughbred more often than the other riders at Pine Hollow and she knew how far Prancer still had to come. But her dream had been so consuming, so self-encompassing, that she'd allowed herself to forget all those limitations.
She'd allowed the both of them to crash, and crash hard.
The disqualification hurt; it was a disappointment she didn't often allow herself to face. But she realised she'd been trying too hard to be perfect, tried too hard to achieve something that was still out of her reach. She knew how long a road it was to success; she was a hard worker, and she earned every one of her As. But she'd forgotten all of that, trying to race ahead to the top. And she'd tried to force Prancer there too.
It might have even been a good thing that Prancer didn't pass inspection. Otherwise, one of them might have been hurt in the ring.